F 1233 
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Copy 1 



MEXICO 



AS IT IS. 



THOMAS E. MASSEY, A. M., M. D. 



3L.E CTUEE: 



DELIVERED AT COOPER INSTITUTE, NSW YORK, FEBRUARY 20th, 1866; AND' 
IN OTHER CITIES PREVIOUSLY. 



v/ OF WASH^. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

INTELLIGENCER PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT, 

Nos. 375 and 377 D street, near 7th. 

1866. 



E X I C O 



S IT IS. 



THOMAS K MASSEY, A. M., M. D. 



TUBE: 



DELIVERED AT COOPER INSTITUTE, NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 20th,- 1866 ; AND 
IN OTHER CITIES PREVIOUSLY. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

INTELLIGENCER PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT, 

Nos. 375 and 377 D street, near 7th. 

1866. 



?■ 



7/rv 






> 



MEXICO, AS IT IS. 



Attention being now rivetted upon Mexico, in Europe as well as America, 
With a scrutinizing interest, indicative of origin in its new political fea- 
tures — it may be profitable, and it must be interesting, to while away a few 
fleeting moments in an endeavor to attain some fresh or more tangible fa- 
miliarity with that land of romance, of devotion, of gold and of blood. * * 



For economy of time, as well as for anything like a generous compre- 
hension of Mexico as it is, it is important to introduce, briefly — 

First. The Physical Geography of Mexico — inclusive of the various cli- 
mates and productions — of singular interest intrinsically, and as lending 
its power to make — 

Second. That History, which marvellous, eventful and thrilling in itself, 
was potent and sufficient to insure — 

Third. The existing population of Mexico, their classes and character- 
istics ; the personal, social, material and political condition of the people as 
they are ! 

By careful, analytic illustration of these points, there will be no difficulty 
in grasping a very clear apprehension of the logic of Mexico as we find it! 

First. It has been said, and repeated a thousand times, that within the 
territorial limits of Mexico there are all varieties of climate. This compre- 
hensive statement, however, needs qualification ; for, in trusting it, one 
would expect to find there whatever climate or temperature he left behind 
him. Blessed with a delicious diversity of climate as Mexico is, its every 
variety is perhaps peculiar to itself. The heat is not as our heat, nor the 
cold as our cold. The breezes and moisture from the ssa temper and sof- 
ten the heat of "the coast lands;" while mountain ranges and electric 
atmosphere mellow that of the valleys of the interior. The cold is some- 
thing like that of our April, without its showers and their shivering influ- 
ence, and mollified by a cloudless sky and an ever genial sun. The tempe- 
rate or intermediate altitudes, but few would think at any time too warm 
and none ever too cool. And a temperature appropriate to locality, remains 
so uniform throughout the year as to be scarcely indicated by a fluctuation 



of five thermometrical degrees. One can choose the climate most conge- 
nial and there know what to expect, every day, without consulting his 
barometer. 

The seasons are bnt two in all parts of Mexico — the rainy and the dry ; 
the relative duration of which, and the quantity of water falling, varying 
somewhat in different sections of the country. While the coast, hot, lands 
are generally insalubrious and adapted to no labor but that of the negio 
or the native, the health of " the temperate" and " cold lands" is profound. 
But, as tlie climates are determined by altitude, and thus defy latitudinal 
and isothermal logic, the lines or zones which separate them are, in many 
localities, very small ; so small indeed, that often a, single hacienda is blessed 
with all climates and consequently all the productions. The world 
nowhere else is so wonderfully provided for man's physical contentment ! 
What are known as "the high," "the table," or " the cold lands," such as 
those upon which all the chief interior cities are located, are those where 
they build their houses without fire-places and do their cooking with hand- 
fulls of charcoal, and stoves are unknown ; and yet where cloth and wool- 
ens are worn all the year round, and neither cold nor perspiration ever 
veto kid gloves or patent-leather boots ; — where one may stand beneath 
a tropical sun of over a hundred degrees, and if its rays are in the least 
annoying, move but twelve or eighteen inches into the shade and be as 
calm and "cool as a May morning;" — where butchers hang their most 
delicate meats in their shambles or carry them suspended from the backs 
of mules beneath the intensest rays of that southern sun, for days, weeks, 
months, and apparently years, without attracting a gnat or a fly ; where 
spring-time never ceases, and the body and the spirits are unfretted by the 
elements of air or clouds ; and where all things grow desirable to man for 
nutriment or luxury, from the fruits of the tropics to the cereals of a Min- 
nesota or a Russian clime ! 

In a trip of less than three hundred miles, from Vera Cruz to the Cap- 
ital, one passes through all the varieties of climates thus indicated as dis- 
tinguishing Mexico. And when that gigantic and rapidly progressing work, 
"the Mexican Imperial Railroad," between those cities, shall have been 
completed, the traveller, after a pleasant breakfast in Vera Cruz — that de- 
lightful little city ; famous for its commerce ; its sweet, placid tidyness ; its 
" vomito," which, with the accidents of life, maintains its equilibrium of 
population by killing off about one seventh annually; its "Northers" 
which blind the eyes with dust, and keep ships for days "beating about" 
off the harbor, or dashing them to pieces if they dare enter; its lively, 
mirth provoking and sleep-preventing fleas ; its ghoul-like buzzards, which 
are guaranteed "the freedom of the city" bylaw and stalk about its streets 
with a solemn and saintly meekness only ruffled by an occasional conflict 
over a bone ; its " por tales" lined week days and holy days through all the 



round year with tranquil and joyous? imbibers of juleps, cobblers, punches 
and coffee ; — whirled from this haven of midsummer eternal, and sweep- 
ing by Cordova, fragrant with its matchless coffee, its oranges and bananas ; 
and Orizava, nestling by the side of its perpetually ice-clad Peak and luxu- 
riant in its tobacco, its mango, and guava ; up to Puebla, " the City of the 
Angels," beautiful in its quiet, tasty uniformity, cleanliness and fairy 
clime ; — onward, over mountains, at one season festooned with clouds 
whose misty haze is gladly welcomed from the torrents on either side, and 
at another frosted with a bride-like gauze of snow : — onward, and down 
again a thousand feet or more, into the lap of everlasting Spring, into the 
rich and beautiful valley of that ancient and modern Capital — dining at 
eventide in the city of Mexico, the centre of the country's history, its 
wealth, its romance ; of its society, its dissipations and its agonies ! 

Where now stands this compactly-built city, of two hundred thousand 
inhabitants, with its regular streets of palatial residences, its hundreds 
of churches, rich in structure, in ornaments and emblems of devotion, of 
silver, gold, and precious stones, with thick and massive walls which have 
stood for centuries and will apparently defy the ravages of all time ; its 
colleges, museums, parks, statues and fountains ; its thronged thorough- 
fares of fashion and display; — here, Cor'tez found a Capital with people of 
asserted fabulous numbers, and a King and Court of fabulous wealth. Sit- 
uated in a most picturesque valley, some fifty miles in diameter, with deep 
blue mountains all around it and enclosing with it several large lakes, of 
water both salt and fresh, the story of its selection as the site for the Cap- 
ital of the ancient Kings is thus told : 

The- first Montezdma having secured his ascendancy and controlling the 
homage and tribute of vast numbers, held his Court somewhere away to- 
ward the northwest, probably on the banks of some one of the golden 
streams of Sonora. Becoming dissatisfied, or ambitious of extending his 
sway, his warrior-councillors were assembled to deliberate upon a removal 
of his Capital and decide upon its location. The important matter being 
yet undetermined, and while probably amid dissent and discord, an Eagle 
in its flight passed closely over the royal council, bending its course toward 
the Southeast. Mostezuma, quick with the idolatrous instincts of his race 
and epoch, saw divinity in the proud bird's passage, and rising from his Im- 
perial Throne, bade his councillors to bow in reverence to the omen. Quickly 
summoning his fleetest couriers, he commanded them to follow the Eagle 
in its course, declaring his purpose to found his city where first it should 
rest. Wearied at last, it was found perched upon a Nopal, (a species of 
Cactus, ) in the middle of a lake, with a serpent in its beak. The couriers 
returned with their report-; but the haughty chieftain disdained to turn 
aside from his vow ; and the foundations of his new metropolis were laid 
upon the spot where the Eagle had alighted. And ' ' the Eagle, Snake, and 



6 

Nopal " became the coat of arms of the Aztec Empire, and it has sa con- 
tinued through all dynasties and changes; the device is emblazoned on the 
coins of Mexico to this day. 

Seated in that vale of mellow beauty, lavish richness and fascinating 
clime, the city of Mexico reaches down, on the one hand, to the luxuriant 
valley of Cuernavaca, but fifty miles away and four or five thousand feet 
below, and obtains its sugar and coffee and all the fragrant flowers and 
luscious fruits of the tropics ; while, on the other hand, she reaches fifty 
miles in another direction, and from the hoary summit of Popocatapetl 
bears away daily installments of chrystal ice for our tables, our creams, our 
punches, and juleps ; illustrating thus a blest land of dream-life, a "happy 
valley" of romance. 

No one can arrive in the city of Mexico for the first time, however much 
he may have read about it or however distinct his impressions, without 
being amazed at the evidences of wealth, taste, elegance, solidity, and re- 
finement. 

Being seven thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea, 
the rarity of the atmosphere and the brightness of the sun have an 
illuminating effect, dazzling and injurious to the eye, but softened by the 
skillful inhabitants with the mellow tints in which they robe alike palace, 
temple, and dwelling. And "the moonlight of Mexico is marvellously 
beautiful." "The light comes, as it were, pure and pellucid from heaven,- 
and you seem almost able to touch the stars, so brilliantly near do they stand 
out, relieved against the back-ground of an intensely blue sky." "The 
sharp lines of tower and temple come boldly out with shape and even color 
almost as bright and yet softer than at noonday." Strolling, on these 
nights, is attractively general ; and the inhabitants would fain refuse to slum- 
ber were it not for the sake of meeting the always fresh and beautiful mor- 
row. Nature, too, is clothed in its richest garniture. The leaves apparently 
know not when to fall, for it is a clime of perennial spring. "The new 
leaves push off the old ones with a gentle force, and the regeneration of 
the seasons is effected without the process of fading, wilting, withering, 
and dying, which makes with us the melancholy days of Autumn 'the 
saddest of the year.' To look at the external world, you would say there 
was no such thing as death in Mexico. The rose and the leaf you admire 
to-day are replaced to-morrow by fresh buds and renewed verdure."* 

The calm and gentle atmosphere impresses the habits and customs of 
the people. The heaviest business is conducted with the order and quiet of a 
parlor ; and as you pass along the thronged streets, every one seems to 
have an object toward which he goes, at his leisure, while musing in inward 
song. 

As the climate of the valley of Mexico and other table lands, moulds to 
a natural extent the characteristics of the people, so all the climates of the 

* Mayer. 



country, without enervating, incline to calmness of spirit and repose of 
body. — The restlessness evinced in governmental changes and Revolutions 
sprung from other causes, illustrated hereafter, which were sufficiently ex- 
citing and importunate to subordinate the natural inclinations. — In times 
past, as at present', with but little labor the earth yielded sufficient for the 
wants of that simple minded people. Secluded from the rest of the world, 
commerce stimulated neither artificial tastes, appetites, or competition for 
gain, and the land was vexed with neither hoe nor plough. It strikes 
every stranger with wonder upon what feed the dense populations of the 
towns. But few, small, and scanty are the gardens; in but patches, at 
wide distances,' all over the country, is all the farming, and nowhere is the 
ground "fenced in." Carelessness, thriftlessness, and idleness, mantle 
the native as with a doom. 

Within the limited territorial area of Mexico, the attempt would be vain 
to indicate, by boundary lines, the diversity of climate, soil, product, and 
deposit ; of the elements which please the eye, satisfy fancy, or stimulate 
avarice. Travellers over every part of that country, have found or fancied 
winsome localities of some peculiar charms of animal, spiritual, or speculative 
existence. While the old Department of Jalisco combines in itself all that is 
picturesque and beautiful in scenery, with matchless fertility of soil, and 
richness of woods and of minerals ; Sonora woos with its romance of his- 
tory, its golden-bedded streams and mystic mountains of silver. The old 
State of Vera Cruz can sustain a population equal to that at present of all 
Mexico ; it glories in all shades of temperature, is studded with an end- 
less variety of useful and ornamental timber, and is the land of fruits and 
birds and flowers. Oaxaca teems with its splendid harvests of wheat, its in- 
digo, and cochineal. Chihuahua, Zacetecas, and Tamaulipas, offer luxuriant 
fields for the herdsman and shepherd, and a thousand mines for those who 
would explore their depths. Tehuantepec tempts the developement of an in- 
teroceanic commerce to eclipse the fabled wealth of Alexandria, of Tyre and 
Sidon ; and while its surface bears the Mahogany and Gum-tree, its soil reeks 
with Petroleum. The wealth of Guerero and Chiapas is yet only known to 
the natives; while the vast "central States," with their staples of cotton and 
corn, of tobacco, coffee, sugar, wheat, cattle, and silver, offer all that is 
grateful to the senses, spirits, comfort and happiness of man. And yet, 
over all this compact and endless variety of the inviting, the useful, and 
the luxurious, there has been a, pall of restless night, whose threads, linked 
to earth and nurtured by the air, were woveu by the genius of history ; into 
whose realms a brief excursion will be demonstrative that this apparent 
metaphor embraces Hie philosophy of the condition of Mexico. 

Second. When Coktez and his cavaliers landed in Mexico — a hundred 
years before the Puritan pressed the rock of Plymouth — and transplanted 
there a Spanish civilization, which, rapidly spreading over the whole land 



8 . 

has endured to the present hour, he found a people with an established 
Government, skilled in appropriate useful arts, of singular wealth, con- 
tented, hospitable and courteous. Although the history of this sacluded 
people is but dimly preserved in uncertain tradition, in their sculpture, 
mounds, monuments, and vast pyramids, the testimony of these is eloquent 
in sustaining the "Reports" of the conquerors of an empire of, barbaric 
it may have been, but dreamy and extravagant splendor. While the earth 
bore scarce a trace of cultivation, and the inhabitants were gentle, unsus- 
picious and indolent ; gold, silver, precious stones, woolens, purple and 
costly dyes, overwhelmed with amazement, and stimulated avarice to 
treachery, rapacity and blood. The Spaniard came, in quest of that the 
evidences of the abundance of which in the strange kingdom were suffi- 
cient to fire brains less acquisitive and remorseless than those of his ex- 
citable race. There commenced at once examples, which rapidly became 
a system, of merciless oppression, extortion, and fraud, and which con- 
tinued, without a check, for three centuries. Soon those who had been 
free "lords of the soil," and had been passing their lives in leisurely 
basking in the rays of that delicious sun, became mere ignoble and de- 
graded "beasts of burden," stinted in the very food necessary to sustain 
their miserable lives. And even at this day it is a question whether an 
Indian or a vnde can carry the heaviest burdens and live on the least ! 

But under this Spanish regime, princely cities grew with amazing num- 
bers and rapidity, with royal mansions, and richly substantial abodes. 
Cathedrals and convents — vast, massive, everlasting — endowed and adorned 
with unmeasured wealth, impressed and awed every neighborhood. "Ha- 
ciendas," the homes of country gentlemen, controlling the labor of thou- 
sands of "peons," at a mere nominal expense, dotted the land at wide dis- 
tances from each other, with castle-piles to defy attacks of robbers, of 
armies, or of time. Roads and bridges, arches, culverts, aqueducts and 
viaducts were built, master-pieces of skill and strength, which still exist 
to attract the admiration and amazement of future ages. Argosies of sil- 
ver, gold, ornamental woods, dyes, and drugs, floated off to old Spain. 
All the surface of the country was parcelled out, by royal grant, to favorites 
of fortune and the Crown. While one class surrendered themselves to ag- 
grandizement, to high-living, culture, politeness, elegance and vice ; the 
other was degraded into uncared-for pieces of machinerv of muscle and 
bone. The whole country regarded but as " the mine and mint " of Spain, 
its agriculture was not only neglected, but positively repressed by declaring 
titheable its natural luxuriant productions ; treated as a colony of vassals, 
these were not allowed to be devoted to any of those branches of industry 
that foster the independent and manly growth of a people, but solely to 
those that would crush out whatever there might be of native aspiration ; 
all ground down into one intense work of digging, separating, and coining 



9 

silver and gold ; and with the colonization of other peoples prevented, the 
exclusive Spaniards grafted themselves upon the conquered and debased 
aborigines, and the mongrel blood, with the haughtiness of the one side, and 
the indifference of the other, glided into the life of the robber-guerilla, 
with the effect of perpetuating the exclusion of other races and the non- 
production of the country. 

Such is a brief history and outlined picture of Mexico from "the con- 
quest" down to the "Independence" of 1821 ; such the unpromising ele- 
ments for the foundation of an independent political society ! 

That was a Revolution without beneficent results hitherto which trans- 
ferred Mexico from its vassalage to the Spanish crown to that of its own 
disheveled people. Spain, bloated and enervated with gold and luxury, 
wrung from her American possessions, had long lost its strength to uphold 
either national domain or fame. When, at the commencement of the 
present century, the spirit of Revolution had been stimulated by the 
success of our own, the Spanish colonies af South America and Mexico at 
last caught the infection ; and having almost nothing to contend against 
but elements now of their own population, accomplished their separation 
from "the mother country" with but comparatively little warfare. 

Ituebide, at first taking service under the Spanish Viceroy, soundly 
thrashed the Priestly and other insurrectionary Generals ; and then unfurl- 
ing, for the first time, the banner of "Independence," achieved it, and 
crowned himself "Emperor." 

But, now, most impoitant and unfortunate consequences followed, which, 
themselves, became directly and necessarily, potently and enduringly, 
causes and indices of the subsequent fevered history. 

It has been briefly told, that, during the Spanish rule, the estates were 
bestowed in immense tracts, of sometimes hundreds of leagues ; that 
agriculture was not encouraged ; that the wealth of the country was con- 
centrated in the hands of the miners, the Church and the large land- 
owners. With the Revolution, the mines largely ceased to be worked, 
many of them filling with_ water, which has not been removed to the 
present hour ; the large merchants, those who brought and amassed 
capital on account of the mines, closed their business and returned to 
Spain; many of the land-owners did the same, and their "Haciendas" 
were seized by the Church or transferred to mongrel offspring. Sources 
of revenue for any government, almost wholly disappeared, and develop- 
ment and progress taking no fresh start, no new sources were opened. As 
"a treasury" is an indispensable necessity for any government, and as 
from "the Revolution" to this day, no "government" in Mexico has been 
able to create an income at all commensurate with its expenses, is it won- 



10 

derful that there have heen incessant Revolutions ? Is it wonderful that 
the incessant Revolutions have prevented the development of income ? 

It would weary, and far more than exhaust the hour, to rehearse the 
changes, and the history of the changes, of rulers since 1821. In the 
forty-two years, down to 1863, it is historically stated that, there have been 
seventy-five Executives, under the various titles of Emperor, Presidents, 
Dictators, Provisional Governments, Substitutes, Ad interims, &c, &c. It 
is also said that there have been over thirty " different forms" of govern- 
ment ; bat history fails to endorse this statement, each and all having been, 
of necessity, purely arbitrary, wherever authority could be extended. Of 
"Revolutions, great and small," it is also said there have been over two 
hundred. These Revolutions, whether successful or unsuccessful, were 
(in the language of Brantz Mayer) " apparently objectless, and never en- 
forced or decided a principle ;" and be might, most truthfully, have added, 
never had any other principle involved than that of the '-outs" to get 
"in." 

A very brief sketch of the earlier and latest days of this epoch of dis- 
order, must be sufficient for illustration of its general character and distinct 
features. 

Iturbide, the chief of "the Army of Independence," sustained by his 
troops, was proclaimed and crowned Emperor. Becoming " disgusted " 
(to use, for the sake of brevity, an expressive Americanism^ within a 
year, he abdicated, fled the country, and, on venturing to return, was 
shot. An "ad interim" or " provisional " government succeeded, com- 
posed of Bravo, Victoria, and Negrete, who calling a "National Represen- 
tative Assembly," a "Federal Republic" was proclaimed, under the forms of 
which Victoria was declared President. Victoria accomplished that in 
which he has had but a single successor- — he served out his term, although 
its latter part was vexed with turbulence and revolution. In the election 
which followed, and which was both violent and farcical, Pedraza was 
declared successful by a majority of but two votes over his competitor, 
Guerero. Before Pedraza had taken his seat, he was "pronounced" 
against by the defeated candidate, which, in the course of the year, was 
successful, and Guerero was " declared" legally elected, with Bustajiente 
for Vice-President. Guerero had scarcely been installed when the Vice- 
President "pronounced;" and Guerero was overthrown, fled, caught, and 
executed for treason, and Bustamente installed as President ! But very 
brief tranquility followed, and Santa Anna "pronounced" against Busta- 
mente and in favor of Pedraza, whom he had been instrumental in driving 
out but two years before ! Bustamente abdicated, and Pedraza was 
brought back to serve out the remaining three months of the term for 
which he had been declared first elected, in order that, upon the expira- 
tion of that brief period, Santa Anna might thus, dexterously, become 



II 

his successor. This accomplished, in order to pay hack a very naturaS 
grudge, when Santa Anna had gone up after the Texans, Bustamente took 
the opportunity again to usurp power. 

But it would he a waste of time to even sketch any more of these usur- 
pations and overthrows, distinguished from each other scarcely by the- 
respective pretences or plans of execution. At one time, the "Leperos," 
the extreme of the degraded of that population, after sacking the Capital 
and perpetrating every enormity and outrage, became " the ruling class ;" 
and Alvarez, with five thousand "Pintos " — the Indians of the State of 
Guerero, whose skins are spotted and eyes white with an hereditary leprosy 
peculiar to their mountains — in rags and filth, captured the city of Mexico, 
and "declared" their chief President. Alvarez served less than three 
months, when, wearied of so much civilization, he voluntarily and arbi- 
trarily turned over the government to Comonfoet, and betook himself to- 
las own kind, in th^ir own mountain passes, where he still reigns .' 

The ease with which the supreme authority could be destroyed or over- 
thrown ; the absurd facility with which constitutions and so-called con- 
stitutional elections could be created or set aside by any bold and daring 
chieftain, had been established in the first months of "independent" 
existence ; and experience has shown how many there were to take ad- 
vantage of the example. 

The part played by the condition of " the Public Treasury " can have 
no stronger illustration than in the fact that Herreea, fortifying his ex- 
chequer with the United States gold which bought the " peace " of 1848, 
held on to the Presidency for the whole term for which he had been 
selected — the only example in history since the first Presidency. 

After the administration of Herreea, political events reverted to their 
old channel ; and — to skip to the end — in February, 1857, an "extraordi- 
nary Congress " ("this kind of Congress had become very ordinary), called 
for that purpose, proposed a "new constitution," under which Comonfoet 
was " declared " elected President. But Zuloaga, with the usual aid of a 
body of soldiers, got up "the plan of Tacubaya, "—"plans," "constitu- 
tions," and " pronunciamentos " amounted to the same thing, the name 
of the one or the other being invoked as seemed most available for the 
change desired, — and Comonfoet fled the Capital. Zuloaga was, of course, 
legally installed ; but, in November, 1858, was himself deposed by sub- 
stantially the same forces which had set him up ! A "convocation of no- 
tables " called Miramon to the Presidency, who became active in pursuit 
of disturbers of national repose. But while away at Guadalajara, at the 
head of his army, General Robles "pronounced" and was proclaimed 
President at the Capital. Robles conducted so much of the government 
as was limited to the city of Mexico, for two days, and was glad to relin- 
guish it. — This estimable gentleman was subsequently inhumanly butch- 



12 

Bred, by "Liberal" authority, and without trial, soon after the French 
had entered the country.— Meantime, Juarez got up a party— or a party 
got up Juarez — based upon his selection as Chief Justice under the "con- 
stitution" or "plan" of 1857, which provided that such officer should be 
the Executive in case of its vacancy by both both President and Vice- 
President. Mm&MOH had got back to the Capital, and Juarez, exciting 
revolution in various provinces, at last got around to Vera Cruz. Mira- 
MOK held the Capital, and with it the facilities for borrowing money on the 
faith of "the government;" and there was Juaeez, with his Court at 
I '< ra Cruz, collecting the duties which Miramon was pledging capitalists of 
foreign nations. The " export duty " on silver, the chief source of rev- 
enue, was collected by Miramon at the Capital, and again by Juaeez at 
Vera Cruz; while the Generals of both were sustaining their respective 
armies by "forced loans" of the property of capitalists, foreign as well 
as domestic, wherever they might be. Thus there were two governments 
de facto. France and England offered their mediation in vain, because ac- 
cepted by Miramon and declined by Juarez. After many months, Juaeez, 
better served by his troops, and aided by the moral support of the United 
States, succeeded iu driving Miramon from the Capital and assuming him- 
self the direction of the government from the centre ; while Miramon in 
turn took to the provinces, and, with the aid of his lieutenants, was over- 
throwing the authority of Juarez in one State after another. Many Gen- 
erals of the latter deserted him; the commander-in-chief of his, "the 
Liberal," army, Ortega, threatened to depose him. Violent measures 
taken by Juarez increased the confusion. He pronounced Miramon ban- 
ished ; expelled from the Capital, simultaneously, the envoys of Spain, 
the Holy See, and Guatemala, because suspected of "sympathizing" with 
Miramon ; sequestered private fortunes ; confiscated the "Church property" 
for the replenishment of his exchequer; and melted, "for drachmas," 
the ornaments of the churches and public squares. The life of the French 
minister was threatened ; murders and robberies became of daily and 
nightly occurence ; life, especially of prominent foreigners, was no more 
safe in the Capital than on the highways. Judicial officers assumed inde- 
pendent and corrupt authority. There was no recognized government 
anywhere outside of the Capital ; and that within it bore no semblance to 
duly constituted republican rule. Citizens of England, France, and Spain 
became clamorous for their loans to the various governments, forced and vol- 
untary. Miramon had incessantly postponed payment ; and Juarez, though 
collecting large sums avowedly for that object, dallied with the represen- 
tatives of these creditors under the pretense of "no money in the treasury, " 
and finally " decreed " payment of the foreign debt ' ' suspended." "The 
triple alliance," to force payment and settle the country, was the conse- 
quence, resulting in the present Government. 



13 

TniRD. Being now prepared for a clear comprehension of the natural re- 
sults of such a combination of influences as we have seen, for what we 
shall find, by a somewhat critical insight into the climates and the things 
of the earth and in the earth ; into the condition and character of the 
people found in Mexico by its conquerors, and the uses made of them ; 
the changes and consequences of the Revolution, and the subsequent dis- 
orders and their effects, — we are ready to look fully and directly upon 
the Mexican people of to-day — their classes, their social, economic and 
political existence and complications. 

It would be interesting and agreeable to go into the dwellings of that 
people, and see their everyday life, with its peculiarities of habit and 
custom ; into the abodes of the lower classes and the homes of society. 
But time forbids. There are certain traits, however, common to all, the 
highest and the lowest, too attractive for omission. Prominent among 
these is that of chivalrous, courteous politeness, pervading every element 
of the population. A reception in and an exit from a Mexican house of 
social position is a model of beautiful propriety. The filthiest " lepero" 
salutes his fellow by the roadside, with hat in hand and kindly inquiries 
as to the health and happiness of self and every member of the family. 
The respect shown to parents, to age and to misfortune is most observa- 
ble and impressive. The kind and affectionate demeanor of the young to 
aged relatives — at times the most withered, scrawny and perhaps repul- 
sive to strangers — excites the admiration of sonls open to ennobling and 
reverential instincts. A boy rarely returns from his daily school without 
affectionately kissing the hand of his father and the cheek of his mother ! 
A beauty and a gem of life could thus be charmingly imported from that 
torn, riven and abused land, to others more self-conceited ! As high models 
of manly nobility and womanly virtue adorn Mexico as grace any people 
under the sun, and doubtless in a favorable numerical ratio. 

The joopulation of Mexico naturally consists of the pure-blooded, lineally 
descended Spanish stock;, the equally unmixed descendants of the abori- 
gines ; and those whose blood is mixed. There are, in addition, a few 
negroes and foreigners scattered in various parts of the country. The' 
total population was carefully estimated and divided, in 1858, as follows :• 

" Of pure European stock, one-fifth, or 1,656,620 

Of mixed native and European, four-fifteenths, or 2,208,824 

Of native or indigenous race 4,417,644 

Being a total of i. 8,283,08S " 

Since this census the population has naturally increased ; but it is im- 
portant, for our purpose, to revert to estimates determined and decreed 
by Government itself, in 1842, in fixing a basis of representation for the- 
various Departments. This census divides the races as follows : 



14 

Indians 4,000,600 

Whites ' 1,000,000 

Negroes 6,000 

All mixtures., 2,009,509 



Total 7,015,509 

The Indians and negroes were then numbered at 4,006,000 ; while the 
whites, together with the mixed bloods, only amounted to 3,009,509 ; leav- 
ing the pure European stock less than one-seventh of the whole. 

Mr. Brantz Mayer, a distinguished publicist and author, of Baltimore, 
devoted to the genius of our own political institutions, was Secretary of 
the U. S. Legation at Mexico in 1842, and published during the succeeding 
year the most valuable work in the English language on the past and pre- 
sent of that country. He takes the last-mentioned estimates as a basis 
for the formation of others, which, according to the observation of all who 
have ever been in that country, are replete with substantial facts, how- 
ever startling in character. "It has been liberally estimated, " says Mr. 
Mayer," that of the Indians and negroes not more than two per cent. 
can read or write, and of all others not more than twenty per cent." 
"If we take this computation," continues Mr. Mayer, "to be correct, 
as I believe from my own observation it is, and using the estimate of the 
Decree of 1842 for the basis of population, we shall have : 

Of Indians and negroes who can read 80,120 

Whites and all others 607,628 



Total able to read and write out of a population of seven 

million 687,748 " 

Mr. Mayer proceeds : "This would appear to be a startling fact in a 
Republic, the basis of whose safety is" presumed to be "the capacity of 
the people for an intellectual self-government. Let us, however." he con- 
tinues, "carry this calculation a little farther. If we suppose that out of 
the one million of whites, five hundred thousand, or one-half only are males, 
and of that half million but twenty per cent, or but one hundred thousand 
can read or write, we will no longer be surprised that a population of more 
than seven millions has hitherto been controlled by a handfull of men ; 
or that, with the small means of improvement afforded to the few who can 
read, the selfish natures of the superior classes, who wield the physical 
and intellectual forces of the nation, have forced the masses to become but 
little more than the slaves of those whose wit gives them the talent of 
control." 

These estimates and reflections are impressive ; not surely because mere 
intellectual education qualifies men to adorn or govern a nation, or pre- 
vents treason, rapacity or scoundrelism; or that mere incapacity to read 



15 

and write makes men either dishonest, corrupt or incapable of self-govern- 
ment — it certainly need not make them vagabonds, " ladrones" or " gue- 
rillas;" — but because illustrative of the extremely restricted opportunities 
for development in any direction ; and because the distinct features of this 
classification, remaining substantially the same, are strongly suggestive of 
a suspension of wonder or doubt as to the interest, the capacity, the re- 
sponsibility, of the masses of the Mexican population for governmental 
administration, governmental changes, and especially governmental forms, 
theories or principles ! The broad seal set by the grasping Spaniard upon 
the dividing line between the races, assigned the one not only to ignorance, 
but to such distinct inferiority as no conceivable commingling and no time 
is potent to overcome. It is true that "mixed bloods," as well as those 
of pure Indian descent, frequently attain social, financial and political po- 
sition, although "the mixed," as a rule, find their congenial association 
with the degraded element. But those who enter into the constitution 
of "the ruling class" are separated from the inferior by a barrier as pe- 
culiar and indestructible as their own massive walls of cement and vol- 
canic rock ; and is a mountain obstacle to material progress and develop- 
ment. Where capital and labor are not intelligently alive to mutual 
benefit, to reciprocal self-interest, prosperity and progress are impossible 
or accidental. Where the laborer does not do all he can to promote his 
own interest, to increase his wages and comforts of life ; and where the 
capitalist appreciates not the benefit to himself of generous compensation 
and elevating treatment, development, progress, stability — all that con- 
tributes to constitute elements of statehood — are hedged within very narrow 
circles. Such is an unfortunate condition of Mexico. The man who hires 
work to be done, whether as farmer, merchant, contractor, mechanic, pri- 
vate citizen, or what not ; and the man or woman who does it, treat one. 
another as mutual enemies — the laborer doing as little as possible for the 
highest wages he can exact, and the patron exacting all the labor he can 
for the smallest possible compensation. And when the work is done, 
neither take any more interest in the other than if they had never met. 
Hence labor is capricious, and he who has an hundred hands to-day can- 
not rely upon ten to-morrow. This unfortunate Hispano-Indian legacy is, 
however, of that natural, consequential, origin which forbids all hope of 
change — especially of sudden, legal, forced modification. The indigenous 
race, upon which has been grafted all the other population of Mexico, and 
which has impressed considerable of its physical and moral character upon 
the whole, is of the stock which, nomadic in its primitive state, is without 
recognition of meted and bounded landed property ! It is the experience of 
ages that it is the possession, cultivation and pride of ownership of land 
upon which depends the security of patriotism, the ambition of nationality! 
The blood of the Montezumas courses through the veins of the Mexican of 



16 

to-day ; and in that blood are vitalized the same instincts which hare dis- 
tinguished the race through all time. The Spaniard came, and soon 
nominally monopolized all the land. But, in the changes incident to the 
necessities and accidents of personal ownership, the pure-blooded natives 
have almost wholly, and "the mixed bloods" to a nearly equal extent, 
failed to manifest any departure from the spirit implanted in them from 
the beginning. The Mexican of the present is generally as thriftless and 
reckless of property as in the days when Coktez, in the name of his sove- 
reign, found it so easy to appropriate his land and his government. Mostly 
without lands, they place but little value on any kind of property ; and as 
exacting as they may be, and are, in their prices for menial and other ser- 
vices, the spirit of aggrandizement is not in them ! They squander with 
their fellows, divide with their indigent and sick, gamble and drink away 
all they have to-day, utterly cool as to the income of the morrow. And 
with the morrow, so bountiful is the earth, and so limited the range of 
their appetites, that a shilling at most will pass their day and put them to 
bed as comfortably as the night before ! 

There is apparently much squalid wretchedness in Mexico ; thousands 
living more like brutes than men. And the streets of the cities and towns 
are revolting with the vast numbers of filthy mendicant deformed, maimed 
and blind. But there is probably less actual suffering from want than in 
any equal population in the world. Accustomed to but little, and kind- 
hearted and charitable toward one another, that little is easily procured. 
While begging is a profession, off of which some get moderately rich, 
those living on the outskirts of towns, in the most horrid filth, are as con- 
tented and happy as kings, having inherited and known no other condi- 
tion of life. In distinct relief do the following very brief extracts from the 
work of Brantz Mayek place before the eye this large portion of the Mexi- 
can population. 

In describing a visit to a superbly rieh valley, not far from that of Mexi- 
co, that author says : "The beautiful suburbs of the town are chiefly in- 
habited by Indians, whose houses are built along the narrow lanes. * * 
The dwellings are exceedingly slight — a few canes stuck into the ground, 
and a thatch of brush complete them. * * * Unkempt men, indolent 
and lounging, begrimed women, surrounded by a set ol naked little imps 
as begrimed as they ; and all crawling and rolling over the filth of their 
earthen floor, or on dirty hides stretched over sticks for a bed. A handfull 
of corn, a bunch of plantains, or a panfull of beans picked from the near- 
est bushes, is their daily food ; and here they burrow, like so many animals, 
from youth to manhood, from manhood to the grave. * * * There is 
not a single ingredient of a noble-spirited and mountainous peasantry in 
them. Mixed in their races, they have been enslaved and degraded by 
the Conquest; ground into abjectness during the Colonial Government ; 



17 

corrupted in spirit by the Priesthood; and now without hope, without 
education, without other interest in their welfare than that of some good- 
hearted village citrate, they drag out a miserable existence of bestiality and 
crime. Shall such men," Mr. Mayer continues, " be expected to govern them- 
selves ? : * * * Such a population — poor and servile — cares not for poli- 
tics, and it were a mercy to rule them wisely and justly I " 

But there is another and a higher order of Mexicans, large in numbers, 
of some influence, because possessed of some force ; of elements of occa- 
sional usefulness, to ambitious chieftains, and whom every one who goes to 
Mexico learns to respect, at a distance, — to whom we will be introduced 
through no fancy sketch, a picture to which the imagination has added 
and can add nothing. 

You can visit an enchanting valley in the heart of Mexico, four or five 
thousand feet below its Capital and yet less than sixty miles from it, where 
Cortez chose his home and the seat of the wealth of his descendants ; 
where the three climates bless a single estate, and through which two 
rivers meander gently in their course toward the Pacific ; where grow the 
sugar, the coffee, the tropical fruits and plants which furnish the tables 
of the Capital ; where spring and summer vie in their luxuries and glories 
all the year round ; where the hues of the flowers are matched by those of 
the birds, and parrots have their nursery ; where, in short, Nature in very 
gaiety has robed herself in the lavishness of all her charms ; and where 
Cathedrals, temples and palatial dwellings, with walls of castle-strength 
have defied three centuries of time ; and — while basking, with sentiment or 
perhaps melancholy reiiection, in that delicious atmosphere and beauteous 
scenery, amid bowers of the soft, luscious fruits of the clime— ever and anon, 
perhaps several times a day, a well-understood warning note will suddenly 
turn all eyes to the mountains ranging round that "Paradise," as Cortez 
called it. There are figures of horsemen, with evident intentness and ra- 
pidity, scanning town and farm. They are merely taking an inventory of 
the neighborhood, forming an estimate of the presence of strangers, or the 
feasibility of an incursion upou the coffers of "the oldest inhabitant" — 
canvassing the opportunity for robbery and pillage. As romantic as such 
an intrusion upon the languid luxury of thought and sense may be deemed 
afterwards, at the time the respiration of resident and stranger recovers its 
equilibrium only with the retiring of those forms on the other side of the 
mountains. These are the "guerillas'" of the country — the gentry who 
relieve stage-coaches, wayfarers, farm-houses, factories and mills, of any- 
thing valuable found on hand, and go scampering away with the joyous- 
ness of a practical joke ! It is a large and influential set of men in Mexico !. 
Mostly "mixed bloods," occasionally a native becomes sufficiently en- 
livened to be a partaker of the toil and spoil ; a negro now and then is 

' 3 



18 

elated to the pride of a saddle, while the life has been known to have its 
attractions for a French or an American " deserter ! : ' These are the men 
to whom, if you have crops growing, you must pay tribute beforehand if 
you would enjoy their fruition. They are generous in their attentions, 
recognising no distinction between a native or a foreigner, a Conservative 
or a Liberal, an Imperialist or a Republican. They make farming a preca- 
rious business, relieving of all surplus receipts ; bivouacking on accumu- 
lated supplies ; and having a disagreeable habit of driving off "corrals" 
of mules for use or ransom, and occasionally a member of a family for 
similar purposes ; now and then invade goodly-sized towns, and keep the 
population of the country thin and nervous ! The value of the interest of 
this element of the Mexican people in public affairs or government has 
always been measured by the importance of their "dash" in "the next 
change." 

The mechanics, artizans, builders, manufacturing ivorkmen, &c, are an 
interesting link in the chain of Mexican life and merit a passing notice. 
Quietly, slowly, perseveringly, do they devote themselves to their avoca- 
tions. All kinds of handicraft, when once acquired, are practiced to per- 
fection. In the construction and adornment of buildings they have no 
superiors ; whether in external appropriateness or the harmony and per- 
spective of internal embellishment, every eye is satisfied. In "type-set- 
ting, ' ' even in languages of which they know not a word, their ' ' clean 
proof" would astonish many an "old typo." Hitherto the isolation of 
Mexican cities has compelled them to be self-sustaining in the production 
of most of the articles of daily use. Hence their factories of woollens, 
glass, paper, &c, are unsurpassed in the substantiality, neatness, and ele- 
gance of their workmanship. In painting and sculpture the genius of 
many is comparable with that of the Art-Capitals of Europe. Even in hus- 
bandly, though reluctant to use new tools, they are thorough in their 
work; and there are farms, especially in Poebla and Oaxaca, which in 
perfection of cultivation would happily serve as models in Europe or 
America. Those of that population once sobered down to arts of indus- 
try do their work with a pains-taking, a precision and completeness 
which those of more civilized pretensions may strive in vain to emulate. 
As far back as 1535, the good Bishop of Tlascala asks in a letter, with 
philosophy as well as quaintness, " who will have the impudent mind and 
hardened forehead to assert these men to be incapable of The Faith, whom 
we find to be most capable of mastering the mechanical arts." With atten- 
tion concentrated upon the object of their toil, those of this class wot little 
of either foreign or domestic politics. The fluctuations of markets, the 
excitements of society, the news of the day, disturb .their daily ways no 
more than the ambitions of chieftains or the rise and fall of empires. 



19 

The ordinary tradesmen and small dealers are absorbed in their engrossing 
traffic; and whether native, foreign, or mixed, not being accustomed to be 
jostled ever and anon for their "votes," ortoheara " stump speech," these 
are satisfied with the excitement of thrift by day and a count of the profits 
by night. 

"In the ascending scale" the " men of standing" 1 are reached— the 
Proprietors, Merchants, Capitalists. Solid capital seeks stability ; fictitious 
capital, fluctuations — in Mexico as well as elsewher.e. While there are 
both kinds of capital and capitalists in that country, its history has been 
most propitious to the nurture and activity of the latter class. The land- 
owners, or proprietors, are divisible into those who live upon and direct 
the cultivation of their estates, and those who, with immense possessions, 
live in the cities upon whatever income " administradors" or overseers 
obtain for them. The latter have been apt to join other capitalists in 
becoming mere jobbers in the rise and fall of " governments." Upon the 
accession of every new Executive, the first necessity was — money I Every 
government de facto has been sufficiently "recognized" by business men 
for them to be 'loilling to receive "special privileges" — to advance heavy 
loans based on a well-established faith in the non-repudiation of those 
loans by successors, because repudiation would impair their own ability to 
borrow ! And thus — heavy interest being secured, sometimes directly 
and sometimes in the way of exemption from customs-duties on imports 
or the exportation of bullion, and often in both ways — the community of 
capital became, to a large extent, mere jobbers in governmental misfor- 
tunes, and financially interested in frequent changes. By force of circum- 
stances, therefore, governmental instability induced instability and reck- 
lessness in business ; and this, in turn, became powerful in inviting "new 
deals," while national life was becoming "sick unto death." 

" The Priesthood'" favored the late " intervention," because the preceding 
Executive sequestered its property. It would, doubtless, favor a Republic 
or Empire, a Democracy or a Monarchy, promising to restore it. 

The Army, being hitherto exclusively Mexican, whose personnel consisted 
of the docility, impetuousness and fickleness of Mexican character, was a 
mere instrument of governmental support against those domestic enemies 
with whom its materials daily, instinctively, affiliated^/br whom they pro- 
nounced, and to whom they handed over "the helm of state" to-day, 
because they had defeated them yesterday ! An army thus composed of a 
people without respect for government, instead of increasing, diminished 
the prospects of governmental stability, and historically indicated the neces- 
sity of component elements removed from the traditions and temptations of the 
native population for national repose and proaress. 

Briefly thus is the field of Mexican population almost swept. If the 
strictly " literary men" are omitted — teachers, professors, authors, &c, who 



20 

have pretty much the same exclusively devoted character the world over — ■ 
it is apparent that the requirements of the several classes already men- 
tioned would leave very few of that "one hundred thousand" of Mr. Mayek, 
who can "read and write," for the Politicians. These have been, indeed, a 
very small, but a very enterprising class ! Being " out,'" they want to be 
11 in;" and, being "in," they want to stay there. An unusually large 
number of offices, proportionally, have been created for their accommoda- 
tion ; but it has never been possible to have enough for all, as small, com- 
paratively, as is their aggregate number. These "do" the "public 
opinion" of Mexico ! While it has been seen that there is almost no 
"public" to have an "opinion," a very few of these men can represent a 
great deal ; and, ichen an army was available, could at times succeed in 
controlling a good deal. Some of them now being " in," may be Republi- 
cans in principle, but patriotically resign themselves to be esteemed 
Imperialists ; while many who are out meekly endure the name of " Libe- 
rals." It is by no means to be inferred that there is not as much genuine 
personal patriotism in Mexico as in any other country. Transfer your 
estimate of the amount of the patriotism of your own politicians to Mexico, 
and each one's private opinion will probably be as near the truth there as 
here ! 

But, as the politicians have hitherto been chiefly -notable as government- 
makers and government-destroyers, we might naturally go directly from a 
consideration of the Army to that of the Government, as between them 
there has been but a step. For. by whatever forms or names various 
"governments" have selected to be known, it has been seen that the 
semblance of popular elections has been invoked or set aside as seemed 
most convenient or available to the Army or the interest securing its 
co-operation. 

As a substantial, consolidated despotism, had Mexico been governed for 
three hundred years, by Viceroys of the Spanish Crown ; and with the 
genius of that government, alone, were the traditions, the memories, the 
instincts, the usages and customs of the daily and business life of the 
Mexican people— of the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the aris- 
tocrat and the "lepero," the intelligent and the stupid, the saint and the 
sinner — familiar, infiltrated, saturated, as with the air and the bread of 
existence. No element of "self-government" had ever been felt or known. 
No "States," no communities, had ever combined local expression of 
wants or power to co-operate with or influence the central head. Mexico 
was governed, and accustomed to be governed, as is Cuba to-day, save 
that in the former had permeated none of that foreign and commercial 
element which lightens up the "gem of the Antilles." It was all of one 
compact mass of isolated social and political machinery, revolving deeply 



21 

in the ruts of Time, and without a pebble of any other species or creation 
to jostle it ! With the Revolution of accident, Itukbide grasped the genius 
of his native land, and wisely attempted obedience to its traditions and 
everlasting laivs ! But the old materials of operation had been withdrawn, 
and time was necessary for the manufacture and placing of new. The 
capital, which had been so employed as to choke off all other means of 
accumulation, had been whirled out of the country. The mines closed 
their mouths ; and the fields reverted to the barrenness of the day when 
the Spaniard first pressed their bosom. Slavery was abolished, and with 
it the cords of peonage loosened. In the preceding ten years of turbulence, 
the laborers had imbibed a taste for no work save that of destruction. 
The governmental treasury was without sustenance ; and military chief- 
tains had tasted the sweets of power and command. Itukbide, with mingled 
despair and patriotism, lifted the Crown from his forehead and betook him- 
self to a foreign land. Ignorant or reckless of history and its philosophy — 
of the traditions engraved on every face, on every habit about them — the 
multitude of aspirants clutched at the shadow of republicanism, it may 
be for a wider field and more chances ; and, without building, proclaimed a 
" Federal Republic" where no federation and no elements of federation had 
ever existed! 

It would be interesting, and amusing, to illustrate by examples the won- 
derful talent of desperation ; the eccentric traits and the irremediable 
straits ; the bombastic bearing and the sublime daring ; the crimes, the 
follies, and the fun, which have distinguished the consequent "Govern- 
ments" of Mexico. But their character, as well as the sequel, are to be 
read in the fragments strewed along the road over which we have been 
travelling together ! 

Carefully, systematically, and it is believed logically, have thus been 
elaborated and illustrated not only the complete philosophy of Mexican 
anarchy; of the apparently insuperable difficulties in the way of the 
development of that country by any agency ; but even of that extreme 
reluctance and distinct declination of other nations to assume the burden 
and responsibility of having anything to do with it or for it, notwithstand- 
ing the eloquent intercession of its distractions, growing with every 
change, with every step, with every day, till repose seemed as hopeless as 
among the spirits of the lost ! England, in vain, almost directly invited 
the United States to assume the expensive and complicating task. Said the 
"London Times" in 1859 : "If some new military dictator were to arise, 
or the country were to be absorbed without more delay by the United 
States, their treatment (of English creditors of MexicoJ could not be worse 
and it might, especially in the latter case, be much better." * * * * 



"Let the United States, when they are finally prepared for it, enjoy all 
the advantages and responsibility of ownership, and our merchants at 
Liverpool and elsewhere will be quite content with the trade that may 
spring out of it." Mr. Whitehead, the agent of the British bondholders, 
in a letter of September*26, 1859, said that he "could see no pacification 
except by the intervention of some powerful nation ;" and he said further, 
that " that opinion prevails very generally among the more sensible part 
of the Mexicans themselves, who, without desiring annexation, would be 
glad to see something in the shape of an armed intervention on the part 
of the United States," and more than hinted that it was the policy of 
England to promote it. And Lord John Russell, in a letter of December 
16, 1859, hovered about the same idea. But the United States, whether 
from motives of its politicians clearly and patriotically ascertained by 
themselves, or not ; or from those of financial concern ; or because of the 
evident difficulty or impossibility of incorporating that people into our 
Republican, State, system of government, positively declined the responsi- 
bility of ownership, or even of an "entangling alliance" approximating 
to it. " It will be remembered," says the Hon. Francis J. Parker, of Mas- 
sachusetts; in 1S65, "by such as are familiar with the history of our own 
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, that the difficulty encountered by our Envoy 
was, not to secure cession of a portion of the Mexican territory, but to 
escape the necessity of absorbing the whole, so absolutely wanting in cohesion 
were the political elements there ; and, in the end, in order that we might 
galvanize the authorities into such a condition as should enable us to treat 
for peace and to extricate ourselves from the dilemma, it became necessary 
to accept the concession of a breadth of territory sufficient to warrant us- 
in assuming the indemnities to our citizens, and also to pay into the hands 
of the then uppermost faction a sum so considerable as to give temporary 
consistency to its administration, and thus to cover our evacuation of the 
capital and country." " Very similar," Ccontinues Judge ParkerJ "has 
been the experience of Napoleon. * * *. He, too, has created a Mexi- 
can Government with which he may treat for indemnity. We, as republi- 
cans, (naturally J gave our creation the dress of republicanism ; and the 
Emperor fas naturally) robed his in the imperial purple." 

As the whole of Mexico was directly at our disposal in 1848, so also, in 
1859, by the stipulations of "the McLane treaty," that country was vir- 
tually offered to our perpetual keeping and absorption. Though the adop- 
tion of this treaty was strenuously iirged by the President upon the Senate, 
it was never even entertained by that body ? so far as "the public" knows. 
It is true that reports got outside of the "secret session" that it was dis- 
cussed and voted upon, and required but a single vote for the requisite 
" two-thirds ;" and that but a single member of the then " opposition," a 
Senator from Massachusetts, voted for its ratification. The terms offered 



23 

for the acceptance of the United States were strikingly illustrative of the 
hopelessness of Mexican affairs and the desperation of the leader who 
covild consent to such a treaty. Had the United States Government 
ratified it, it would have become as virtually, completely, and consecu- 
tively the owner and controller of Mexico as if its flag had at once waved 
in every Capital and over every fortress and custom-house in the land. It 
conceded a permanent transit and right of way across Mexico on three 
lines — one over the isthmus of Tehuantepec, and the consequent con- 
struction of the highway of the Continent to outflank the commerce of all 
other nations ; and the other two from our boundaries, right across those 
parts of Mexico most teeming with attractions for American settlers, to the 
ports of Guaymas and Mazatlan. It authorized the United States Govern- 
ment to lend its military and naval forces to the Mexican authorities, at their 
expense, for the execution of the treaty. And it did more. Mexico has 
not only custom-houses on the coast, but, till within the last few weeks, in 
the interior towns, collecting "interior duties" off of everything mer- 
chantable passing within their gates. This treaty stipulated to admit free 
of duty from this country almost every article produced, and of course- 
would have stimulated production, in the South and West, and naturally 
would have settled " the inevitable Yankee" at every mile-post ! In short, 
it would have placed Mexico, as a fledgling in the talons of a hawk. But 
it was clearly not considered wise for this Government to " entangle" 
itself even thus far ; and the conclusion may have been one of most far- 
sighted and sagacious statesmanship ! For it is certain that Juarez could 
not have been sustained in Mexico, or slumbered in its Palace, upon the 
heels of his conclusion of such a treaty, ("to say nothing of that subse- 
quently offered to Mr. Corwin, to mortgage two provinces with no hope 
of redemption,^ - without the immediate and continued presence of an. 
American army, and the consequent complications of such, an actual 
"intervention." The Mexicans of intelligence, all whose opinions on 
public affairs are entitled to respect, are tenacious of existing territorial 
integrity and nationality. They are proud of their land, its glories of 
earth, air and sky, its majestic scenery and wealth, its capacity for future 
fame and power. They are patriotically anxious for their country to 
become illustrious in the venerated and distinctive name of "Mexico;" 
and sensitively fear and despise the idea of denationalization or further 
dismemberment. Hence, "no sooner" — quoting the language of Judge 
Parker, of Massachusetts, again — " had t lie authority established by " the 
French" began to crystalize into the semblance of permanent government, 
than it met the assent of the people in every form which could give 
expression to the voice of the citizens. High dignitaries of the Church, 
Generals of the armies, Governors of the States, citizens the most influen- 
tial, yielded their adhesion with apparent gladness ; while the advent of 



24 

their Emperor was solicited by a 'convocation of notables,' and confirmed by 
the suffrages of such of the army and of the people as were not actually 
within the limits of opposing forces." Mexicans of patriotism filled the 
Cabinet, Councils of War and State, aud all the other civil offices through- 
out the land. To save their country in its entirety ; elevate it above its 
factions, obtain governmental financial assistance till time and develop- 
ment would enable it to support itself, and at last smooth the way for 
stability, seemed to be the aspiration of the highest Mexican patriotism ! 

But, if national desperation and hopelessness were manifested in the 
increasing convulsions and Revolutions ; in the indisposition of the United 
States to absorb the country or wrap itself inextricably in its troubles, and 
in the reluctance of other nations to intervene ; in the historical declina- 
tion of General Scott to assume the arbitrary chief-magistracy of the 
country ; in the offer of one, claiming to be its President, to surrender it 
to the folds of an anaconda ; this last consent, approbation and participation, 
of the chief men of the land in a control directed by a foreign ruler and 
treasure ; this last manly, if humiliating, confession and acceptance of 
national failure, rather than endure continued anarchy, or longer risk 
political extinction, leaves no resting place for a figment of faith, of credu- 
lity, or even conjecture, in the power of unaided Mexicans to compose 
their country and give it a decent and honorable position among the 
nations of the earth ! 

If some elements of discord still remain, it cannot be forgotten or 
ignored that more formidable and more destructive and revolutionary have 
been the dissatisfactions and commotions for all the half century past ! 

Having groped amid the shadows ami monuments of the past, and min- 
gled familiarly with the life and events of the recent, we have reached 
now the living present — beyond which it is not given to man to penetrate. 

The wants, the necessities of Mexico, are as plainly read as man's 
approaching doom in the daily turning of the leaves of the ledger of life ! 
The capacity for government of itself, by its own materials, had been con- 
stantly diminishing with every effort and every change. That population, 
it is apparent, had to be protected against itself; had to be put aside — into 
quietness — with their nerves unshocked by the incessantly recurring exi- 
gencies of " the governments." Vital and absolute became the necessity 
for a "government" of solid independence of the people, leaving them and 
leading them by its stability, its protection and visibility, in channels of 
sobriety and repose. 

It has been seen that there are most valuable elements of industry in 
very Mexican characteristics; that agriculturists, artizans and mechan- 
ics, can learn to do their work with a precision and completeness 
unrivalled. It has also been seen that but a very small fraction of that 



25 

people have been gentled into paths of usefulness. The overwhelming 
majority are but social and political excrescences. With the settling ten- 
dency of national and popular repose — the cessation of tumult — will gra- 
dually come a natural inclination to steadier habits and a susceptibility 
to the influences of that great, first, absolute and pervading requisite of 
Mexico — -a, new population' of other races, other peoples — a new genius and a new 
impulse. Scattered over that luxuriant land, in those rich and mellow 
valleys, by those chrystal streams of motive power, and down in the 
caverns of mineral wealth, the inspiration of diversified experience and 
contact cannot fail to elevate the natives into useful units of the world's 
progress ! 

Already, and within the last two years, do the railroads, the steam- 
powers, the telegraphs and expresses begin to startle into new life, and 
the people into new thoughts and aspirations ! 

For the first time, since began the record of its history, are those of other 
and all lineage invited, and cordially, into its realms, and the way opened 
and smoothed for their coming ! 

For the first time are the capital, the enterprise, the citizens, of other 
climes, finding their way not only to the mines, but the thousand rills of 
improvement promotive of the contentment, comfort, and development 
of men and of nations ; and are protected, encouraged, and cared for there 
by representatives of every leading government on earth except our own — 
while millions of silver and a rapidly-growing commerce are floating off to 
Europe without a beckon to our shores. 

Rulers, governments, forms, might change incessantly and forever; 
might take to themselves the names of Republics or Kingdoms ; Democra- 
cies, Monarchies, or Empires ; and end as all have ended before, if failing 
thus to sprinkle the earth with the new elements essential to a new life ! 
And should accident or incident close again this fresh well-spring of hope 
to that unfortunate and unhappy land ; should, in other words, this last 
attempt to regulate and develop Mexico fail, without the substitution of 
some other extraneous organific machinery, reversion would be inevitable to 
that anarchy in which it has rioted and rotted for fifty years ! 

But the decrees of Providence are registered all along the track of time 
With a reckless indifference to the plans and conceits of man. * * *. 

The world asks, demands, needs the pacification, the development of 
Mexico. It has untold riches for the promotion of the economy, the com- 
forts, the luxuries of life, the world over and forever ! 

If in the majesty of Destiny it is ordered that Monarchy and not Demo- 
cracy shall be its instrument, by the roadside of Time is the consolation 
dropped, that Rome for centuries, and France in our own day, essayed in vain 
to robe themselves in the mantle of Republicanism, and marched to wealth, 
to glory, and to power, beneath the halo of Imperial Crowns ! 



26 

But, if the transfusion of other races and other impulses are necessary 
for the regeneration of Mexico, in that consummation, under whatever 
shape invited and effected ; in the planting of these, its essential elements 
of life and health ; the Genius of Republicanism sees — perhaps not far down 
futurity's pathway — its own, complacent, image, growing and glowing in the 
pride of confident supremacy and perpetuity ! 



APPENDIX. 

[From the New York Daily Times, March 25, 1866.J 

" FRANCE, MEXICO, AND THE UNITED STATES— THE DANGERS OF THE 
SITUATION. 

" To the Editor of the New York Times : 

" The United States have called upon France through the press, through popular meet- 
ings, through the expressed wishes of the national House of Representatives, and through 
the correspondence of the Secretary of State, to withdraw her troops from Mexico. To this 
demand France replies through the language of her Emperor, through the address of her 
Senate and Chamber of Deputies, that she has no intention to permanently occupy any portion 
of the Mexican territory; but that her flag floats in Mexico by the undisputed and indisputa- 
ble rights of war — that her armies found that country in a flagrant state ol civil war, 
coextensive with its most extreme limits, which had already lasted some forty years or 
more — that, under the protection of the tri-colored flaif, a large body of notable citizens, 
representing the conservative interests of all parts of the country and the whole Christian 
population, came together in council and decided to re-establish the monarchical principle of 
government, as affording the only basis upon which rested any hope for the restoration of 
legal liberty, public order, personal security, and the renovation of the country from the- 
devastations of so many years of internecine strife — that to secure these objects and to found a 
government of sufficient strength to preserve the nation's faith with foreign countries, this 
great council had called upon Maximilian, an enlightened Prince of Austria, to preside 
over their Government under the hereditary title of Emperor — that popular opinion, 
expressed through the bailot-box, had approved the change in the form of government and 
the choice of the Archduke a* their Emperor. 

" France also states that it is her right, now that her armies are on the spot, to aid the 
establishment of some sort of government that can afford some satisfactory guarantees 
against the recurrence of new causes of war, or acts of injustice toward French citizens now 
residing in great numbers on Mexican territory. That her engagements to the new Govern- 
ment, and a proper regard to the Catholic Church, which rallied to its support, as well as for 
the persons and the interests of French citizens, require the presence of Imperial French 
troops in .Mexico until the pacification of the country is complete. She states that she will 
not withdraw them upon the menace of Congressional, newspaper, or Executive warnings 
and demands. The opposition in France take the same ground, although originally hostile 
to the Mexican expedition. The supporters of .Napoleon III. and his opponents agree in 
the declaration that France only moves in obedience to her own will, and not in compliance 
with the dictation and menaces of any foreign power. Here, then, we have before us the 
assumed position of both the American and French Governments in direct verbal hostility 
to each other. One or the other must change position or a contest between them will 
ensue. 

" Before engaging in open hostilities it is due to ourselves (and to the world that we should 
proceed to a candid consideration of the principles and the facts involved in the situation 
of the respective parties, with a view to finding a safe and honorable issue to both from its 
impending danger. 

" What are the facts in regard to France touching this matter ? France made a legiti- 
mate, if not a politic war upon the Mexican anarchical government under Juarez — not on 
our Government. She invaded and took possession of Mexican territory — not the territory 
of the United States. The rights of war indisputably justify her, in pursuit of the legiti- 
mate objects of the war, in talcing temporary possession of the positions she now occupies on 
Mexican territory. We have no more natural right to require her to withdraw from Mexico, 
under actual circumstances, and while in the prosecution of the legitimate objects of an 
acknowledged legitimate war, than we have to require her to withdraw from Algiers and its 
dependent territory, or the coast of Africa. But we have a political, or rather an accidental 
right, founded upon a proper regard for the security of our commercial interests in the 
future, to refuse to her arms the permanent occupation of Mexico. The character of this 



27 

right grows out of the fact that France is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, military 
and naval powers of the world. The importance of this accidental strength of France is 
made apparent by a comparison. For example, let us suppose that the Government of Costa 
Rica had made -the conquest of Mexico instead of France, and had aided the monarchical 
party to found an Empire under Maximilian. Had that been the case, neither the Ameri- 
can Government nor any American citizen would had any reasonable ground to complain of 
the presence of the Costa Rica flag on Mexican territory. What then constitutes the differ- 
ence between the two cases ? A difference we all feel; but the essential principle of which 
few of us have given ourselves the pains to understand. In the case of France, her rights 
of conquest and the right to obtain indemnity and to establish such an order of things in 
Mexico as would give satisfactory guarantees for the future, cannot be disputed. Yet the 
accidental or political fact that she is a great military and naval power, and the further fact 
that Mexico, in her possession, occupies a position both on the Gulf, the Carribean Sea, 
in reference to the West Indies, and on the Pacific, that would possibly enable France to 
exercise a predominant control over the waters we have mentioned, gives to the United 
States, as to all other commercial countries, whether they exercise it or not, a right to require 
that she shall not permanently possess or govern Mexico. Such a permanent occupation of 
Mexico by France might, in future time, restrain the natural commercial rights of the 
United States and other countries, great and small, in Europe and America, within the 
adjacent waters of the Atlantic and 1'acific. 

" Were the United States, England or Spain, in the permanent occupation and govern- 
ment of Mexico, the same dangers to the liberty and security of the commerce of the world 
might be the result. Hence arises the right of each and all the other nations to interpose 
objections to the occupation and permanent government of Mexico by any one of the great 
maritime and military Powers of the world. Mexico occupies such a position on the globe, 
that although the right to make war upon her and reduce her to terms by occupation is 
indisputable, yet the permanent occupaiion of her territory by any great Power challenges 
the legitimatehostility of all the other States. Such would not be the case if Costa Rica or 
the King of Mosquito, if there be still such a personage, should work his way into the pos- 
session of Mexico under any form of government. Mexico, under such circumstances, 
could not be a subject of a just alarm for any nation, near or remote. All our rights, there- 
fore, to complain of France for the occupancy of Mexico, grows out of the power of her 
Government, and has no other foundation. It is thus, in the name of the freedom and the 
security of the commerce of the world, and of our own, and for the common advantage* 
of a proper balance of maritime power, for the security and equal rights of all nations, that 
we are justified in calling oh France to seasonably evacuate Mexico. That seasonable 
moment depends altogether upon the pacification of that country, and the establishment of 
an authoritative Government of its own. 

"This statement of facts and illustrations seems to bring to light the true principles 
which lie at the foundation of this Franco -Mexican question. Our rights over Mexico, other 
than those of not being attacked across the border, are common to all other nations, and 
their rights are common to us. Neither can claim privileges or exemptions on account of 
proximity or distance. 

" Oceans are no longer, as they once were, barriers to national intercourse. The influence 
of improved navigation, and the application of steam to the propulsion of ships, have made 
the oceans and the seas on the surface of the globe rather facilities for intercommunication 
between the various peoples of the earth than impediments to their intercourse. 

" There is no greater triumph of human genius than modern navigation. It has brought 
all nations into one family, with common rights, responsibilities and obligations. No 
aation can claim aa exception from the obligations of justice and equal humanity in all re- 
spects in their intercourse with others. 

•' There has been a pretension in some parts of the American Continents to claim excep- 
tional rights and piivileges in regard to international laws as acknowledged by Europe, on 
account of remoteness from the rest of the world. These pretensions have led to exceptional 
laws and extortions, practiced in several States of South America towards foreigners, par- 
ticularly in Paraguay by Francia and Lopez, and in Mexico by its so-called Republican 
Government, for fifty years past. But these pretensions have been set aside by the wars 
they have entailed on Paraguay and on Mexico. The United States have had occasion to 
make war on both for a dereliction of duty toward our fellow-citizens. For the same reason 
France has been twice obliged to make war upon Mexico, and her Government now justly 
claims, in the common interest of her subjects and the rest of the Christian world, to re- 
main there until a responsible Government shall have reduced the country to a condition 
of tranquility, security and peace. With the purpose we have just indicated, everr Chris- 
tian and civilized country in the world should encourage the Emperor of the French to 
complete the difficult task he has undertaken. 

" Having established, as we think, the principles which lie at the bottom of this porten- 
tous Franco-Mexican question, as applicable to ourselves and other countries, let us now in- 
quire how and by what methods the rights and the honor of the respective parties can be 
satisfied, and all the incalculably great commercial interests involved be protected, without 
an open rupture between the two great Powers, now standing armed and determined in 
presence of each other. 

" It cannot be expected that a great country like Fiance, or any other country having the 
power to defend its interests and its honor, can be induced to abandon a policy entered upon 
for just and adequate reasons and in conformity to the laws of nations, upon the threaten- 
ing exactions of any nation, however powerful. Honor is an inalienable attribute of nations 
as of individuals, which none have a right to assail. Fiance is the most perfectly and pow- 



erfuily organized nation Which the world has ever seen. Her government has in its keep' 
ing the glories of a thousand years of battles and of conquests. Her flag has floated iri 
triumph over every capital of continental Europe. Her generous blood cemented the foun- 
dation, in modern times, of the Kingdoms of Belgium and of Greece. Her heroic bravery 
achieved what the bravery of no other nation could have achieved, in the conquest ;ind the 
deduction of the barbarians of Northern Africa, after others had failed, to the laws of Europe 
and modern civilization. She stayed, with the aid of England and Sardinia, the proud 
advances of Imperial Russia upon the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, ahd saved tho keys 
of Southern Europe and Northern Asia from falling into its hands. She gave the philan- 
thropic aid of her treasure and blood to found, in the Western World, our great Republic— 
the interests, the intelligence and virtues of its people having made such a form of Govern- 
ment possible and desirable. She has repressed the hydra heads of an inveterate civil war 
in Mexico of forty years' duration, and given a helping hand to struggling Christianity and 
sound principles of civil Government, in their efforts to found a popular Monarchy under 
One of the most enlightened Princes of this enlightened age-^-MAXlMlLlANj of Mexico. 
She has left the footprints of her power and her civilization in Peking, the oldest capital of 
the world, in Cochin China, in Madagascar, and the far ofr Friendly Islands. Her Gallic cock 
was borne in triumphj by the side of the Cross to the Holy Land, by Louis XI. The Impe- 
rial eagles of the First Napolean that crowned the towers of the Kremlin, and floated from 
the Pyramids and Alps, have been carried under his great nephew to the Crimea, on the 
Plains of Magenta and Solferino, to the towers of the Palace of the Montezumas. To expect 
that a Government thus imbued with the highest Chivalric, hereditary military spirit, and 
the guardian of the prestige of so many victories and so much renown through so many 
centuries of the world's history, will change its policy, founded upon public law and not 
in violation of the rights of a single nation or individual, upon the bidding of newspaper 
editors, or the resolutions of an unintelligent and an irresponsible popular Congressional 
Assembly, or upon the requests of feeble diplomacy-— feeble because it had no foundation in 
justice or reason— is quite too childish and absurd. The idea, therefore, of driving France 
out of Mexico by threatening legislation and dispatches must be given up. To prosecute 
this policy much further will be to plunge the world into a causeless and devastating war, 
the end of which no one can see, and consequences of which no one can imagine. 

"Have those who ask the Government to guarantee a loan to aid the expulsion of Maxi- 
milian reflected, that a threatened and a prepared blow justifies an attack to prevent it? 
The guarantee of a loan for such a purpose by all the several branches of the Government 
is a belligerent act, and would expose us to immediate war. Policy might restrain the 
threatened party, but his right to strike could not be contested. 

" But fortunately in the adjustment of international difficulties, as in most others, where 
there is a will there is a way. In the case before us the principles of perfect equality upon 
which we have founded the rights of the United States, France, England and all other com- 
mercial and maritime countries, in regard to the necessity of maintaining for their common 
benefits the integrity and the independence of Mexico, suggest the basis of a diplomatic ar- 
rangement which will safely guard all the national interests and susceptibilities involved, 
and avert all immediate as well as future dangers of a war from this quarter. It consists in 
the signature of a formal convention between the Governments of England, France, the 
United States, Spain and the other commercial Powers, by which they all agree not to 
occupy, hold, possess or permanently govern any portion of Mexico ; that the violation of 
this engagement by any one of the parties, shall be regarded as an act of hostility toward 
all the other parties to the convention. 

" The refusal of the French Government to become' a party to such an instrument might 
justly subject it to the suspicion of a secret intention of permanently founding her influence 
in Mexico to the ultimate detriment of other countries. So, too, if any of the other pro- 
posed parties object to signing such a convention, cuch objection might be reasonably taken 
as indicative of a covert purpose to. inflict a wrong upon Mexico and the other parties to 
the convention. No well-founded objection could, however, be' urged by any of them 
against the obligations it would impose, since these obligations consist merely in an agree- 
ment between them not to inflict an injury on each other or on Mexico. France, in the same 
convention and in harmony with her rights, might declare her intention to withdraw her 
flag from every portion of Mexican territory as soon after the pacification of the country as 
possible." 

" The people and the Government of the United States being averse to the idea of extend- 
ing our territorial possessions beyond the Mexican boundary, as now established, would 
find in such a convention an additional obligation to suppress illegal fillibustering inva- 
sions of Mexican territory, as well as the instrument for their suppression. Political par- 
ties in Mexico, too weak to justify the hope of ultimate success, would gradually retire 
from the field of guerilla warfare, and leave the whole country to fall naturally into a state 
of quietude and industry. 

'■' Returning confidence between the Governments of the United States and France would 
restore at once the ancient feeling of sympathy between the people of the two countries, and 
cement a lasting friendship which should remain unbroken for centuries to come. 

" We believe that the signature of a Convention of the character we have spoken of, by 
several of the great Powers, if it should not be concurred in by all of them, would, by its 
moral weight, be acknowledged as an act of public law, and effectually arrest all future at- 
tempts to possess Mexico from all quarters Organized iillibusters, legislative and admin- 
istrative apostles of manifest destiny would be effectually paralyzed^ and rendered harmless 
by the moral and legal influence of such a document, bearing the signature of the great 
Governments of the world. N. N." 



V* 



iS RflRY 0F C0NGRESS 

015 830 446 6 



